Seven Social Media Tips That Just Don’t Make Sense
As the value of social media advertising continues to increase, demand for advice on how to effectively utilise the medium continues to follow suit.
More and more people, both freelancers and small business owners alike, are trying to figure out just how they can utilise social media to help them to achieve their professional goals.
While there is certainly no shortage of useful information available online, it’s important to be aware that not all social media tips are worth listening to. They won’t all help you.
In fact, some of them can be downright harmful.
Here are seven surprisingly popular pieces of social media wisdom that you’d actually be far better off ignoring.
Be Everywhere
A common misconception in the social media world is that you need to be everywhere. Apparently, if you’re not on the latest social media website, you’re needlessly losing exposure/customers.
The reality is that not all social media websites were created equal. And if your target demographic isn’t present, why should you be?
By all means, experiment with any social media website that you think might help you to achieve your goals. But if the value isn’t there, don’t feel like you need to be.
Send Ten Tweets Per Day
One of the first rules of effective social media marketing is that you need to be active. This does not however mean that you need to update your accounts a set number of times per day. In fact, doing so can easily have a negative effect.
Updating your social media account when you have nothing important to say serves no other purpose than to waste both your time and that of your followers. Focus on quality, not quantity.
Save Time By Automating
There’s no denying that social media marketing can be time consuming. Unfortunately however, if you want the rewards, you need to be willing to put in the hours. This means updating your accounts manually and leaving the robots to the spammers.
Automation tools might save you time but they will cost you followers. Always keep in mind that social media websites are populated by humans, not robots. And humans can tell the difference between the two.
Success is Measured in Fans and Followers
One of the most common misconceptions surrounding social media marketing is that success can somehow be measured in terms of how many likes, fans and followers you get.
The reality is that a successful social media campaign is one that helps you to achieve your goals, be that increased brand awareness or increased sales. And the number of fans or followers you amass is not always an accurate indicator of either.
In other words, if your Twitter followers aren’t ever going to do business with you, how many of them you manage to collect is largely irrelevant.
Be Professional at All Times
The first rule of social media marketing is obviously that you shouldn’t post anything that’s going to make you look bad. Contrary to popular belief however, that does not mean that you need to be the very definition of professionalism at all times.
If you want to amass a following, you can’t be afraid to show your human side. And a little bit of well chosen humour never hurt anyone either.
Always Try to Be First
When news breaks in your niche, the faster you post about it the better. After all, the faster you update your accounts, the smarter you look and the more likely those updates are to be shared.
There is one thing that’s more important than being first however and that’s being right. And in an effort to be the first to break the latest news, it’s not uncommon for people to get that news decidedly wrong.
In other words, never tweet until you’re certain that you know exactly what you’re tweeting about.
Promote Yourself As Much As Possible
If you want social media to help you to achieve your professional goals, a little bit of self promotion is very much a necessity. But it’s important to keep in mind that nobody subscribes to your social media accounts to hear a running commentary about how great you are.
Self promotion should make up no more than twenty percent of your social media activity. Think of your social media accounts as television channels. Would you keep watching if there was nothing but advertisements?
Featured images:
The author of this post, Tom Scofield, works for one of the prominent CT SEO companies and he enjoys his work thoroughly. During his free time, he likes to unwind and read science fiction books.
Posted in Social Networking. Tags: social media strategies, social media tips
No Replies
Feel free to leave a reply using the form below!
